Frugal Faux Wedding Cake... Well Kinda :-)

08-01-2008, 11:19 AM #1 (**permalink**)

My Fiancé Ken and I just pushed up our wedding date from November 1st to October 5th. So we don't have a lot of time and most definitely not a lot of money. We just found out that Ken's son has enlisted in the Marines and will be leaving on October 17th.

So one of the many ideas I have swimming inside my head was a how can we cut the cost of a wedding cake? So why not a fake 3 tier box cake and then have a sheet (real) cake in the back. The idea is to have a slot on "cake" and have note cards for our guests to put thier well wishes into or they can use it to put wedding cards into. This way we still have the feeling of a cake but not the expense. Here's what I did...

Items Used:

1 (top) box - Wedding Card box from the dollar store (what a lucky find!)
1 (middle) box - Toy Castle from the dollar store (this needed to be put together and was a little bit bigger)
1 (bottom) box - case of beer that holds bottles (not the one for cans)
*Wire ribbon - 3 spools, white in color, from dollar store
*Tulle - 15 yds cream in colored, from dollar store
*Silk flowers - 4 packs, cream in colored, from dollar store
*Pull Bows - 3, white in color, from the dollar store
Glue gun and pins.

Instructions:
Cover the beer box with white computer paper. Spray painted the toy castle box white. Stacked the boxes according to size, I made sure the slot in the top box faces the front not up. This way I can put a wedding topper on the top. Take tulle and start wrapping snuggly from the bottom up until you get a nice smooth look. You also want to include the top and cut and glue down and cover with ribbon the tulle when you get the slot in the box. Kinda play with it a bit to make sure it's all even.

Take the white wire ribbon and wrap around the bottom of the each box and secure with glue gun. I took the silk flowers and put them in the middle of the bottom tier and on the center tier, I found this wonderful ribbon that had my fiancés and mine favorite colors in it and centered that on the center tier.

I cascaded the pull bows on each tier. Next to the top bow I'll have our cake topper that has our initials on it and in each bow I'm going to have 2 little charms with my kids names on it and the other bow I'll have 2 little charms with Ken's 2 kids initials on it also.

My picture is not the finished version but when it is, I'll send it.

This is our third time around for both of us... :-) so I had a banner made up at Personal Creation that says "Third Times A Charm" to hang up at the reception.

08-01-2008, 12:34 PM #2 (**permalink**)

Great job & a fabulous idea!

08-01-2008, 01:09 PM #3 (**permalink**)

I like it! For my second wedding (if we didn't go to hitchin post) I wanted to have a cupcake tower! It was just this really tall "cake" of cupcakes. But I like what you did!

08-01-2008, 02:02 PM #4 (**permalink**)

I like the idea. It is very pretty.

08-01-2008, 07:39 PM #5 (**permalink**)

What a clever idea and very pretty too.
Judy

08-01-2008, 08:51 PM #6 (**permalink**)

sounds like a great idea,,and good luck and many wishes on ur marriage and i will keep your son in my prayers

08-02-2008, 01:54 AM #7 (**permalink**)

great idea and it is really beautiful you did an awesome job on the cake.Luck nd best wishes on your marriage

08-04-2008, 02:10 PM #8 (**permalink**)

It would also look great on the gift table or at your wedding shower for decor. Thanks for sharing.

~Lori

08-17-2008, 10:59 PM #9 (**permalink**)

Awesome! for a dollar store find. I am amazed something this good lookin from the dollar store. Great Job!